Speech recognizers receive and process audio input in order to recognize speech components within the audio input. Certain conventional speech recognizers enable a user to input audio data by speaking into a microphone or other audio input device. The resulting audio input is received and processed by a speech recognizer to identify speech components in the audio input. One difficulty encountered with such conventional systems is that the speech recognizer is either always listening and processing input or not listening. When the speech recognizer is active and listening, all audio input is processed, even audio input in the form of background noise and inadvertent comments by a speaker. As a result, the speech recognizer performs a great deal of unnecessary processing and often produces erroneous results. One proposed solution to this problem has been to have the speech recognizer only be responsive to phrases that are prefaced with a trigger term, such as "computer". Another proposed solution has been to designate a key on the keyboard that acts like an intercom button such that when the designated key is depressed the speech recognizer is active and listening. When the designated key is not depressed, the speech recognizer is not listening.